What's in my trolley this week?

Wanna know what i bought at the shops this week?

I am not exactly brand or supermarket loyal. I tend to shop based on convenience and then secondly based on price.

Yesterday morning I had some time to do some of my weekly food shopping. I usually go to checkers, Woolworths or food lovers followed by a visit to Dischem or clicks for toiletries and medical. Recently I have shopped at food lovers more often as my children go through fruit qo quickly and they often have specials.

This morning I hit food lovers markets and Dischem.

Dischem shop

Here's a list of what I bought

DISCHEM

1. My vitamin and mineral supplement: I take an omega 3 supplement as well a a multivitamin that contains mostly Vitamin B, zinc, magnesium, calcium and Vitamin D. I am very intentional about my multivitamin. I don't just take a general multivitamin but focus on what my body needs based on blood tests, age, gender and clinical symptoms and found the best one with those amounts.

2. Extra virgin olive oil

3. Buttanut almond butter spread sachets. Almond butter is quite expensive so I keep these sachets to use very now again on toast, smoothies or dips for the kids

4. Almond flour: I don't buy this often but quite a few of the recipes I have tried recently have incorporated it.

5. Futurelife crunch bite sized chocolates (these are for my hubby mostly as they bite sized and so he can have this instead of a bag of wine gums which he loves) and futurelife lite low GI bars for after his gym workouts

6. Dischem brand Vanilla chia seed mix: I love this for my smoothies and on oats.

7. Rolled oats ( Manolis where i usually buy these from as they the cheapest didn't have stock last week): I use these for smoothies, overnight oats or oat porridge for the kids.

FOOD LOVERS:

Fruit

1. Pineapple: I chop this up for snacks and we blend it into the nutribullet to make lemon and pineapple juices for the family.

2. Plums

3. Red grapes

4. Bananas: Kade will have 1/2 banana in the morning before school and we use these alot in our morning smoothies

5. Apples

6. Oranges

7. Lemons: We always have loads of these in our house for cooking, juices and smoothies

8. Frozen berries: I keep frozen fruit to have variety for our morning smoothies.

9. Mango: I use mango alot for salsas or to add to the kids plain yoghurt

Vegetables

1. Prepared butternut halves: Always handy to have some easy to prepare veg

2. Roasted veg tray: I always buy some ready prepared veg for make an easy side for any weeknight supper

3. Baby marrow: I am hoping to make baby marrow noodles this week

4. Celery: I use these to add more crunch to salads as well as smoothies

5. Mushrooms: I always have these in my house and add them to wraps, roasted or pasta dishes

6. Tomatoes

7. Onions

8. Brinjals : I love to make moussaka as well the Jessica Sepel aubergine bruschetta

Herbs

1. Ginger

2. Garlic

3. Mint: great for smoothies and salsa's

4. Coriander: my absolute favourite, I add it to almost everything

Protein and Dairy

1. Tzatziki dip: I usually try make my own but today was a bit of a busy day

2. Mozzarella cheese : I always choose this over cheddar as it is lower in saturated fat

3. Chicken espatada: I always try have some chicken options in the freezer.

4. Biltong sticks (I generally don't eat beef, pork or lamb but this i the occasional beef I have every now and again as it is nice for snacks)

5. Barn eggs

6. Low fat milk

Sauces & Snacks

1. bikali rice cakes ( usually keep a few sometimes (aka treat ) foods in my cupboard for the kids)

2. Pack of marie biscuits

3. Basil pesto

4. Nuts and seed gluten free mix

Other

1. rye bread

This is just a weekly shop for me as I do a big monthly shop at Manolis and then another at mainly Checkers for household and basic pantry essentials so it is mainly fresh things

The one thing you will notice is that there isn't much meat on my receipts. I try not eat beef, pork or lamb during the week . So how do we generally eat in a week.

- Monday and Thursday we usually go meatless

- On a Tuesday we have fish which I usually buy from Barthos or Woolworths

- Wednesday will be chicken and i general have some fillets/ thigh and drumstick pack in the freezer f

Meal plan for the week:

Monday: broccoli and Parmesan fritter with tzatziki and roasted veg

Tuesday: almond crusted fish with pesto zucchini noodles

Wednesday: Cajun chicken with roasted veg

Thursday: Braai

Friday: Take-aways (this doesn't mean steers or debonairs but usually is from a proper restaurant like moes noodles, la cosa nostra or tasca)